Roger Partridge: Revolution by Judicial Decree....

Revolution by Judicial Decree: A Review of Professor Peter Watts KC’s “Ellis v R, A Revolution in Aotearoa New Zealand, Welcome or Not”

Revolutions conjure images of violent uprisings, the storming of institutions, and the forcible overthrow of existing orders. But constitutional foundations can be destroyed through more subtle means. When judges discard long-established constitutional principles and remake the law according to their preferences, they engage in a revolution that may be no less destructive to a nation’s democratic foundations than an uprising in the streets.

Mike Butler: Pre-colonisation, warts and all

That colonisation benefited Maori should be self-evident and there should be no need for a book such as The Benefits of Colonisation by Adam Plover. Sadly, a concerted and prolonged smear campaign by the decolonisation/Maori sovereignty movement has confused some so Plover wearily spells it all out in systematic and comprehensive manner.

The way to establish whether or not colonisation brought benefited or harm, according to Plover, simply is to look at how Maori were living pre-1840, and then look at progress after contact with new people, new ideas, new products, and a new way of life.

We can know how Maori lived before 1840 by reading evidence recorded by visitors from Britain at that time. These written accounts are readily available and include: